Open Boot Lab

Tag: Budget Smartphone

  • Xiaomi Redmi 15C 5G – Unboxing & First Impressions

    Xiaomi Redmi 15C 5G – Unboxing & First Impressions

    REVIEW 003 // BUDGET PHONE // ANDROID // XIAOMI // 5G

    SEPTEMBER 2026

    The Redmi 15C 5G is an affordable Android phone with a large display, 5G connectivity and a massive battery. I picked one up not only to see what Xiaomi offers at the budget end in 2026, but also with a future OpenBootLab project in mind.

    Before the experiments begin, let’s unbox it and take a first look.

    01 // WHY THE REDMI 15C 5G?

    The interesting part here is that this wasn’t originally supposed to be a normal smartphone purchase.

    After experimenting with running Linux on my Redmi A3, I decided that I wanted to take the idea further and build a phone-powered cyberdeck. The A3 proved that the basic concept worked, but for the final project I wanted something newer and more capable.

    The Redmi 15C 5G looked like an interesting candidate: it’s still a relatively inexpensive Android phone, but gives me a more modern platform to experiment with.

    And before I start doing strange things to it, I thought it deserved a proper unboxing.

    02 // UNBOXING

    The unboxing experience is pretty straightforward. For the European market, there is no power adapter included in the box. You do get a USB-A to USB-C charging cable, documentation and the usual SIM eject tool.

    One nice addition is the included clear TPU case. It feels surprisingly good quality for a case bundled with a budget phone and fits the device well. It’s nothing fancy, but it means the phone is protected straight out of the box without needing to buy a case separately.

    In the video below, you can see the full unboxing, first boot and a quick look around Xiaomi HyperOS.

    03 // BUILD & DESIGN

    The Redmi 15C 5G is a large phone, and you notice that immediately when you pick it up. Despite its budget price, though, it doesn’t feel particularly cheap in the hand. The plastic construction feels solid, and the overall design is clean and modern.

    The camera module on the back gives the phone a slightly more premium appearance than I expected at this price point. Xiaomi has kept the rest of the design fairly simple, which I actually like.

    Another welcome feature is the 3.5 mm headphone jack. It’s becoming increasingly uncommon on modern smartphones, so it’s nice to see Xiaomi keeping it on an affordable device like this. You can simply plug in a pair of wired headphones without needing an adapter or USB-C headphones.

    Of course, the size won’t be for everyone. This is definitely not a compact smartphone, but the large body also makes sense considering the big display and battery inside.

    Overall, my first impression of the build quality is positive. It still feels like a budget device, but not an unnecessarily cheap one.

    04 // DISPLAY & HYPEROS

    The Redmi 15C 5G comes with a large 6.9-inch display with a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz. The size is immediately noticeable, and for browsing, watching videos or simply navigating around Android, there’s plenty of screen space to work with. The bezels are still quite large, especially compared to more expensive modern smartphones, and there’s a noticeable chin at the bottom. At this price point, though, that’s difficult to complain about too much — some compromises have to be made to keep the price down.

    The display itself isn’t anything particularly premium, but for normal everyday use my first impression is that it does the job well. The higher refresh rate also helps make navigating through the interface feel smoother.

    The phone runs Xiaomi HyperOS, which felt responsive enough during my initial setup and short time navigating through the menus.

    One thing I wasn’t particularly impressed by was the amount of pre-installed software. There are already quite a few additional apps and games on the phone out of the box. Even during the initial setup, you’re presented with an option to install more supposedly “essential” apps, many of which are basically games.

    Most of this can be removed or simply skipped during setup, but it does make the initial experience feel unnecessarily cluttered. It’s something I’ve come to expect to some degree from inexpensive Android phones, but I’d still prefer a much cleaner installation from the start.

    I’ll need considerably more time with HyperOS on this hardware before making any conclusions about performance. And considering what I actually bought the Redmi 15C 5G for, stock Android usage is only the beginning.

    05 // HARDWARE & PERFORMANCE

    Inside, the Redmi 15C 5G is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 6300, which also brings 5G connectivity to the device. My version comes with 128 GB of storage, with the box advertising up to 8 GB of RAM using memory extension.

    So far, performance feels perfectly adequate for what this phone is supposed to be. Navigating through HyperOS, opening apps and going through the initial setup hasn’t shown any major issues, although this is obviously far from a proper performance test.

    One of the bigger highlights is the 6000 mAh battery, paired with support for 33 W fast charging. For an inexpensive phone, having such a large battery is definitely appealing, although I’ll need to actually use the phone for a while before commenting on real-world battery life.

    You also get 5G and NFC, which makes the 15C considerably more interesting as an inexpensive everyday device — and also gives me a better platform for the experiments I have planned.

    I’m not going to run benchmarks or make any serious performance claims yet. This is only a first look, and there will be plenty of opportunities to push the hardware harder later.

    06 // CAMERA

    The Redmi 15C 5G features a 50 MP main camera, but I haven’t spent enough time with it yet to give it a proper evaluation.

    During my first look, I only briefly opened the camera and explored the interface. I haven’t taken enough photos in different conditions to make any meaningful conclusions about image quality.

    For now, I’ll leave the camera testing for a future post after I’ve actually spent some time using the phone.

    07 // FIRST IMPRESSIONS & WHAT’S NEXT

    My first impressions of the Redmi 15C 5G are mostly positive. It’s obviously a budget phone and there are compromises, such as the large display bezels and the amount of pre-installed software, but the phone itself feels solid, HyperOS runs smoothly enough so far, and features such as 5G, NFC, a 6000 mAh battery and the 3.5 mm headphone jack make it an interesting package for the price.

    But simply using it as a normal Android phone isn’t really why I bought it.

    The Redmi 15C 5G will become part of several upcoming OpenBootLab experiments. First, I want to pair it with the Rii Bluetooth mini keyboard I’ve recently picked up and see how practical the combination actually is.

    After that, things get more interesting. I’ll be experimenting with running Linux on the Redmi 15C 5G, building on what I previously tried with the Redmi A3.

    Eventually, the phone is planned to become the heart of my Android Cyberdeck project, where the goal is to turn an inexpensive smartphone into something closer to a tiny portable computer.

    So this isn’t really the conclusion for the Redmi 15C 5G.

    It’s just the first boot.

    // END OF REVIEW 002

  • Xiaomi Redmi A3 Unboxing & First Impressions

    Xiaomi Redmi A3 Unboxing & First Impressions

    REVIEW 001 // SMARTPHONE // BUDGET TECH
    XIAOMI REDMI A3 // UNBOXING // FIRST IMPRESSIONS

    SEPTEMBER 2026

    The Xiaomi Redmi A3 is one of the cheapest Android smartphones you can buy, which made it an interesting device for OpenBootLab. After unboxing it, I used the phone for around two months to see what it was actually like to live with before eventually experimenting with Linux and turning it into something a little less ordinary.

    01 // WHY I BOUGHT IT

    I bought the Redmi A3 around a year ago because I was curious about just how usable an extremely cheap smartphone could be. At the time, I paid around €59 per phone, which made me wonder whether you could actually live with a device this inexpensive as a normal daily phone. To make the experiment a bit more interesting, I actually bought two Redmi A3s, one for me and one for my wife. The idea was to use them normally and see how both of us would get along with such a cheap phone in everyday use.

    Rather than judging the Redmi A3 only from its specifications, I wanted to find out where the compromises would actually start to show after living with it for a while.

    02 // THE UNBOXING

    The unboxing experience itself is pretty basic, which is exactly what I expected from a phone at this price. There is no premium presentation or anything unnecessary — you open the box, take out the phone, and get the essentials needed to start using it.

    You can watch the full Redmi A3 unboxing on the OpenBootLab YouTube channel below:

    What stood out more than the packaging was the phone itself. The Redmi A3 looked surprisingly good for something that cost around €59. The large circular camera module gives it a much more distinctive design than I expected from an entry-level device, and at first glance it really does not look like one of the cheapest smartphones on the market.

    That first impression became even stronger once I picked it up, but I’ll get into that in the next section.

    03 // FIRST IMPRESSIONS

    The first thing that surprised me about the Redmi A3 was how good it actually felt for the price. I already had a Samsung Galaxy A14 to compare it with, and despite the Redmi being the cheaper device, the A3 somehow felt more premium in the hand. A big part of that comes from the design. The large circular camera module gives the phone a much more distinctive look than most entry-level devices, and the overall build does not immediately scream “€59 phone.”

    Once you start using it, though, one of the first things you notice is just how large the screen bezels are. They make the phone look noticeably more budget-oriented from the front, especially compared with more expensive modern smartphones.

    The display, performance and cameras are also fairly basic, but during those first few hours the Redmi A3 still made a much better impression than I expected.

    That was what made me curious enough to use it for a longer period and find out whether the good first impression would survive everyday use.

    04 // TWO MONTHS OF DAILY USE

    After the initial impressions, I used the Redmi A3 as my normal phone for around two months. For light everyday tasks, it genuinely surprised me. Messaging, browsing, watching videos and using simple apps all worked well, and it often felt more responsive than my Samsung Galaxy A16. I also liked having a 3.5 mm headphone jack. It is a small feature, but one I still appreciate.

    The limitations show up once you ask more from the phone. Using it for work, opening multiple documents, checking emails and switching between apps quickly slows it down. It works best when you keep things simple and focus on one task at a time. The camera is usable for basic photos, but not much more. It can record in Full HD, but the overall video quality is still quite basic.

    One downside is the occasional promotional notification for random apps and games. They can be disabled, but you have to dig through a few settings to get rid of them. It is annoying, but it is also one of the ways Xiaomi can keep phones like this so cheap.

    After two months, I was still more impressed than disappointed. For around €59, the Redmi A3 proved to be surprisingly capable as a basic everyday smartphone.

    5 // THE VERDICT

    The Redmi A3 is not a phone for heavy users, but for the price it does a lot better than I expected. For basic everyday use, it is responsive, the battery lasts well, the design feels more premium than the price suggests, and you still get useful features like the 3.5 mm headphone jack. The compromises are mostly where you would expect them: multitasking, camera quality and some annoying software promotions.

    Phones like the Redmi A3 also make a lot of sense in markets where more expensive smartphones can represent a much bigger part of someone’s income. In those places, a very cheap phone that still covers the basics can be far more important than flagship-level performance. It can also be a great choice as a first phone for a child. For watching YouTube, playing simple kids’ games and basic communication, it does the job without spending a lot of money on a device that may get dropped or damaged.

    Would I use it as my main phone long term? Probably not. But as a basic phone, backup device, first phone for a child or cheap platform for experiments, it makes a lot of sense.

    And that is exactly why this Redmi A3 did not end up sitting in a drawer. I later started experimenting with running Linux on it using Termux, Debian and Proot. You can check out that Lab Note here.

    06 // SPECIFICATIONS

    Display: 6.71-inch IPS LCD, 90 Hz Resolution: 720 × 1650
    Chipset: MediaTek Helio G36 CPU: Octa-core
    RAM: 3 GB / 4 GB
    Storage: 64 GB / 128 GB
    Expandable Storage: microSD support
    Rear Camera: 8 MP Front Camera: 5 MP
    Video: Up to 1080p
    Battery: 5000 mAh
    Charging: 10 W Headphone
    Jack: 3.5 mm
    Connectivity: 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
    Operating System: Android with Xiaomi software
    Fingerprint Sensor: Side-mounted
    USB: USB-C

    Specifications may vary slightly depending on the region and configuration.

    // END OF REVIEW 001